Syndicate

France launches war in Mali to secure resources, stamp out national rights struggles

"The military
attack in Mali has been
condemned by groups on the political left in France, including the Nouveau parti anticapitaliste (New Anti-Capitalist Party [its newspaper pictured above]) and the Gauche anticapitaliste (Anti-Capitalist Left). The latter is a
tendency within the Front de gauche
(Left Front). Shockingly,
the Left Front leadership group has come out in favour of the intervention."

By Roger Annis

January
18, 2013 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/Green
Left Weekly -- France, the former slave power of west Africa, has poured
into Mali with a vengeance in a military attack launched on January 11. French
warplanes are bombing towns and cities across the vast swath of northern Mali,
a territory measuring some one thousand kilometres from south to north and east
to west. French soldiers in armoured columns have launched a ground offensive,
beginning with towns in the south of the northern territory, some 300 kilometres
north and east of the Malian capital of Bamako.

A French
armoured convoy entered Mali several days ago from neighbouring Ivory Coast,
another former French colony. French troops spearheaded the overthrow of that
country’s government in 2011.

The
invasion has received universal support from France’s imperialist allies. The United
States, Canada and Europe are assisting financially and with military
transport. To provide a fig leaf of African legitimacy, plans have been
accelerated to introduce troops from eight regional countries to join the
fighting (map here).

‘Islamist terrorists’ etc., etc.

The public
relations version of the French et al
invasion is a familiar refrain. “Islamic terrorists” and “jihadists” have taken
control of northern Mali and are a threat to international security and to the
wellbeing of the local population. Terrible atrocities against the local
populace are alleged and given wide publicity by corporate media. Similar myths
were peddled by the war makers when they invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq
in 2003.

It is true
that Islamic fundamentalists have ruled northern Mali with an iron hand since
taking over in 2012. But the reasons for this latest intervention lie in the
determination of the world’s imperial powers to keep the human and natural
resources of poor regions of the world as preserves for capitalist profits.
West Africa is a region of great resource wealth, including gold, oil and
uranium.

The
uranium mines in neighbouring Niger and the uranium deposits in Mali are of
particular interest to France, which generates 78 per cent of its electricity
from nuclear energy. Niger’s uranium mines are highly polluting and deeply
resented by the population, including among the semi-nomadic Touareg people who
reside in the mining regions. The French company Areva is presently
constructing in Imouraren, Niger, what will become the second-largest uranium
mine in the world.

Notwithstanding
the fabulous wealth created by uranium mining, Niger is one of the poorest
countries on Earth. As one European researcher puts it,
“Uranium mining in Niger sustains light in France and darkness in Niger.”

Mali (with
a population of 15.5 million) is the third-largest gold producing country in
Africa. Canada’s IAMGOLD operates two mines there (and a third in nearby Burkina
Faso). Many other Canadian and foreign investors are present.

A key
player in the unfolding war is Algeria. The government there is anxious to
prove its loyalty to imperialism. Its lengthy border with northern Mali is a
key zone for the “pacification” of northern Mali upon which France and its
allies are embarked.

Further
proof of the hypocrisy of the “democracy” that France claims to be fighting for
in Mali is found in the nature of the Mali regime with which it is allied.
Often presented in mainstream media as a “beacon of democracy” in west Africa,
the Mali government was little more than a corrupt and pliant neocolonial
regime before last year when the US-trained and equipped Mali army twice
overthrew it – in March and again in December. The Mali army now scrambling to
fight alongside its French big brother was condemned and boycotted by the US,
Europe and Canada during a brief, sham interlude of concern following the first
coup.

Today, the
Mali government is a shell of a regime that rules at the behest of the Mali
military, the latter’s foreign trainers, and the foreign mining companies that
provide much of its revenue.

Touareg people

At the
political heart of the conflict in Mali is the decades-long struggle of the Touareg people, a semi-nomadic people numbering
some 1.2 million. Their language is part of the Berber language group. Their
historic homeland includes much of Niger and northern Mali and smaller parts of
Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Libya. They call themselves Kel Tamasheq (speakers of the Tamasheq
language).

The
Touareg have fought a succession of rebellions in the
20th century against the borders imposed by colonialism and then defended by
post-independence, neocolonial regimes. They are one of many minority
nationalities in west Africa fighting for national self-determination,
including the Sahwari of Western Sahara, a region controlled by Morocco and
whose Sahwari leadership, the Polisario Front, is widely recognised
internationally.

The Tuareg
were brutally subdued by colonial France at the outset of the 20th century.
Following the independence of Mali and neighbouring countries in 1960, they
continued to suffer discrimination. A first Touareg Rebellion took place in
1962-64.

A second,
larger rebellion began in 1990 and won some autonomy from the Mali government
that was elected in 1992 and re-elected in 1997. A third rebellion in Mali and
Niger in 2007 won further political and territorial concessions, but these were
constantly reneged. A Libya-brokered peace deal ended fighting in 2009.

The Mali
state and army constantly sought to retake what they had lost. Violence and
even massacres against the Touareg population pushed matters to a head in 2011.
The army was defeated by the military forces of the National Liberation
Movement of Azawad and on April 6, 2012. The MNLA declared an independent
Azawad, as they call northern Mali and surrounding region. The Touareg are one
of several national groups within the disputed territory.

The
independence declaration proved premature and unsustainable. The MNLA was soon
pushed aside by Islamist-inspired armed groups that oppose Touareg
self-determination and an independent state. The army, meanwhile, continued to
harass and kill people. A group of 17 visiting Muslim clerics, for example,
were massacred on September 22, 2012.

According
to unconfirmed reports, the MNLA has
renounced the goal of an independent Azawad. It entered into talks with the
Mali regime in December for autonomy in the northern region. A January
13, 2013, statement on the group’s website acquiesces to the French
intervention but says it should not allow troops of the Mali army to pass
beyond the border demarcation line declared in April of last year.

Militarisation of Mali and west Africa

Mali is
one of the poorest places on Earth but has been drawn into the whirlwind of
post-September 2001 militarisation led by the United States. US armed forces have
been training the Mali military for years. In 2005, the US established the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership,
comprising 11 “partner” African countries: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya,
Morocco, Tunisia, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

The “partnership”
conducts annual military exercises termed “Flintlock”. This year’s exercise is
to take place in Niger and, according to the January 12 Globe and Mail, “Canada’s military involvement in Niger has already
commenced.”

Canadian
troops have participated in military exercises in west Africa since at least
2008. In 2009, Mali was named one of six “countries of focus” in Africa for
Canadian aid. Beginning that year, Canadian aid to Mali leaped to where it is
now one of the largest country recipients of Canada aid funds.

In 2008,
Canada quietly launched a plan to establish at
least six, new military bases abroad, including two in Africa. (It is not known
exactly where the Africa part of the plan stands today.)

War atrocities

Only days
into the French attack, evidence is mounting of significant civilian and
military casualties. In the town of Douentza in central Mali, injured civilians
can't reach the local hospital, according to Médecins sans frontières (Doctors
Without Borders). "Because of the bombardments and fighting, nobody is
moving in the streets of Douentza and patients are not making it through to the
hospital", said a statement by the agency’s emergency response coordinator
Rosa Crestani.

The
International Red Cross is reporting scores of civilian and military casualties
in the towns coming under French attack.

Amnesty
International‘s West Africa researcher, Salvatore Saguès, was in the country in
September and saw the recruitment of children into the Mali army. He is worried
about retaliatory attacks by the army if it retakes control of the towns and
cities it has lost, notably in the northern cities of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

He also
warned of the plans to bring neighbouring armies into northern Mali.
"These armies, who are already committing serious violations in their
countries, are most likely to do the same, or at least not behave in accordance
to international law if they are in Mali", he said.

According
to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, the latest crisis has
internally displaced nearly 230,000 Malians. An additional 144,500 Malians were
already refugees in neighbouring countries.

UNHCR
spokesperson Adrian Edwards says half the population of the town of Konna, some
5000 people, sought as French bombs threatened to fall by fleeing across the
River Niger.

In an
ominous sign of more civilian casualties to come, and echoing the excuses for
atrocities by invading armies against civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Palestine in recent years, French military commanders are complaining of the
difficulty in distinguishing fighters they are bombing from non-combatant
populations. France’s army chief Edouard Guillaud told Reuters that France's
air strikes were being hampered because militants were using civilian
populations as shields.

No to the war in Mali

The military
attack in Mali was ordered by French President François Hollande, the winner of
the 2012 election on behalf of the Socialist Party. His decision has been
condemned by groups on the political left in France, including the Nouveau parti anticapitaliste (New Anti-Capitalist Party) and the Gauche anticapitaliste (Anti-Capitalist Left). The latter is a
tendency within the Front de gauche
(Left Front). The Left Front captured 11 per cent of the first-round presidential vote
last year.

Shockingly,
the Left Front leadership group has come out in favour of the intervention.
Deputy François Asensi spoke on behalf of the party leadership in the National
Assembly on January 16 and declared, “The positions of the
deputies of the Left Front, Communists and republicans, is clear: To abandon
the people of Mali to the barbarism of fanatics would be a moral mistake… International
military action was necessary in order to avoid the installation of a terrorist
state.”

His
statement went on to complain that President Hollande did not bother to seek
the approval of the National Assembly.

A January
12 statement by the French Communist Party (PCF), a component of the Left
Front, said, “The PCF shares the concern of Malians over the armed offensive of
the Jihadist groups towards the south of their country… The party recalls here
that the response to the request for assistance by the president of Mali should
have been made in the framework of a United Nations and African Union
sponsorship, under the flag of the UN…”

Unlike the
overthrow of Haiti’s elected government in 2004, which the PCF and Socialist
Party supported at the time, France and its allies did not feel the need to
obtain a rubber stamp of approval from the UN Security Council in Mali. But
doing so would not have changed the predatory nature of this latest mission,
just as it didn’t in Haiti.

A January
15 statement by the Canadian Peace Alliance
explains: “The real reason for NATO's involvement is to secure strategic,
resource rich areas of Africa for the West. Canadian gold mining operations
have significant holdings in Mali as do may other western nations…

“It is
ironic that since the death of Osama Bin Laden, the US military boasts that
Al-Qaeda is on the run and has no ability to wage its war. Meanwhile, any time
there is a need for intervention, there is suddenly a new Al-Qaeda threat that
comes out of the woodwork.

“Canada must not participate in this process of unending war.”

That’s a
call to action which should be acted upon in the coming days and weeks as one
of the poorest and most ecologically fragile regions of the world falls victim
to deeper militarisation and plundering.

[Roger Annis is an anti-war activist who lives in Vancouver, Canada.]

Nigerian socialists: Nigerian troops out of Mali!

By Baba Aye

January 16, 2013 -- 776 Nigerian troops are expected to arrive in Mali today to
support the attacks by French forces in the north of Mali. They are
expected to be joined by 124 more, and another 2000 troops from other
West African countries. This action confirms Nigeria’s imperialist role
across West Africa and gives backing to the French attacks which have
already killed hundreds with bombing raids on the three main towns of
Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

Aid agencies expect the number of refugees from the fighting to
increase to 70,000 and the level of malnutrition, which doubled last
year, will also increase. As the people of Iraq and Afghanistan have
found out, Western imperialism never comes to bring democracy but to
defend its own crude interests.

The north of Mali has suffered great poverty and little investment by
the central government for decades. Early last year Tuareg separatists
took over most of the region and declared an independent state of Azawad.

The action by the Nigerian government just supports the right of
French and other imperialist powers to intervene at will across the
world. French troops are being supported by both the US and UK.

The French government claims that the attacks are needed to prevent
the spread of Islamic terrorism as part of the US war on terror. However, the real terror in the world today is poverty which kills an
estimated 3000 people every day. This is the equivalent of an al-Qaeda
attack on the scale of the 2001 World Trade Centre every single day.

We demand the Nigerian government immediately withdraws its troops from Mali.

Algerian socialists: Stop the French military intervention in Mali! No to Algerian cooperation!

This statement was issued by the national secretariat of
the Socialist Workers Party of Algeria (PST, Algerian section of the Fourth International) on January 17,
2013.

After the Ivorian episode in 2010, the French military
intervention in Mali, with its colonialist overtones, is above all an
expression of France’s determination to regain its “African garden”,
which is being gnawed away at by China and other powers, in a context of
a major economic crisis of the capitalist system on a world scale.

The “terrorist” alibi of Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq is being used
again by French President François Hollande, who tells us with a straight face that “France has no
political or economic objectives” in its Mali campaign, and that its
Rafales and its armada, without witnesses and without visual evidence,
“are in the service of freedom” alongside troops from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries
where there is no freedom. This “altruism” of France clearly reminds us
of its “civilising mission” in the 19th century, of which the
Algerian people was a victim during the long colonial night.

But the Algerian regime, whose eyes are riveted on the 2014
presidential elections, has eventually yielded to imperialist pressure.
Mr Bouteflika has authorised French bombers to use our airspace and
ordered the closure of the border. This unacceptable about face in the
Algerian position seriously contradicts the historical fight of our
country for emancipation and the dignity of peoples. At a time when we
are still celebrating the 50th anniversary of our independence, the
about-turn of the Algerian regime, which is cooperating with France in
its war-like enterprise, is the expression of a political turning point
that reduces national sovereignty and locks Algeria into an unholy
alliance of colonial reconquest.

Like the uprisings of the peoples in the Arab countries and even in
Europe, the Malian crisis has its roots on the one hand in the economic
and social disaster caused by liberalism, imposed by the imperialist
powers and institutions, and on the other hand in the dictatorial
regimes which act as guarantors of their interests.

The Malian people, whether in the North or the South, needs
development, dignity and prosperity and not bombs and servitude. It is
for the people of Mali to drive out a few armed Islamist gangs which
want to impose their laws. It is for the people of Mali to freely decide
its future.

Stop the French and imperialist intervention in Mali!

No to the colonial war in Mali!

No to the opening of Algerian air space to the French bombers!

Solidarity with the Malian people and the refugees!

For a political solution guaranteeing democratic rights and development to all the components of the Malian people!

Comments

The
military intervention of the French government in Mali
with the support of other governments such as Germany,
Britain, USA, EU and NATO is using once more as a
pretext the action of specific military groups. We
should not forget that such groups as Bin Laden
himself were constructed by USA as a weapon against
the popular movement in Afghanistan. Now they serve as
an excuse for the imperialists to play the
“cat-and-mouse” game in Mali, in Middle East and in
Africa in general.

The real aim is the
imperialist grab over the fortune of the Malian
people: the
uranium, the gold, the oil reserves, and the natural
gas. As in Afghanistan, as in Iraq, as in Libya once
more such excuses are used for the bloodshed of our
peoples and a renewed stronger long-term role of the
old colonial powers and their companies over our
liberated people.

The
full-hearted support of the International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC) which is based in Brussels,
Belgium, in another imperialist war in Africa shows
that this organization has nothing to do with the
interests of the African people and the workers. It is
hostile to those interests. It is on the other side.
It is aligned with the interests of the
multinationals, the monopolies, the neo-colonialists
supporting imperialism.

As
Africa Regional Office of the World Federation of
Trade Unions we call upon the African trade union
organizations to officially denounce the military
intervention in Mali. A generalized aggressiveness in
the wider region must be blocked. The only ones to
decide on their present and future are the people of
Mali. The wealth-producing resources must belong to
them and be used for the satisfaction of their acute
labour and social problems.

Lulamile Sotaka,
Head of the Africa Regional Office of the World
Federation of Trade Unions,
Johannesburg, South Africa, 25
January 2012